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Ahoy! White Whale Sightings!
Expecting allusions to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick during the National Teachers of English Conference (NCTE) is like (pardon the pun) shooting fish in a barrel. Okay, I know…the whale is a mammal, but...
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Starting “Of Mice and Men” in Song: “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”
The English I Honors teacher in my department recently suffered a serious concussion; no reading or writing for several weeks. Her classes must go on, however, and the new unit on John Steinbeck’s Of...
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Precision Attended to in Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”
There is no surprise in reading the word “precision” in the language of the Common Core’s Mathematical Practice Standards. Mathematics requires precision: CCSS.Math.Practice.MP6 Attend to precision....
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Gove’s British Whitewash of America’s Literary Exposés
Across the pond, British students studying for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) will no longer experience a narrative on growing up in the Jim Crowe South or reenact the witch...
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Carver’s “Popular Mechanics” in the AP Lit Classroom
In a well organized essay, explain how the author conveys his meaning. Be sure to consider structure, diction, setting, and point of view. Above is the prompt I used when I taught Advanced Placement...
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The Mystery of a Great Tree: Betty Smith’s Christmas Chapter
The best holiday scenes in novels are sometimes unexpected. While some of these scenes may seem incidental, the Christmas tree scene in Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) is anything but...
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Henry (David Thoreau) Hikes: “A Walk in the Woods” Livebinder
Today marks the 200th birthday of American writer (poet, essayist, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist) Henry David Thoreau. I remember my first encounters with Thoreau were traditional, his essays...
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Word Sift a Primary Document: The Declaration of Independence
All students should be familiar with our nation’s founding documents, but the 18th-century writing style of these primary sources can be a difficult read for many students. Take for example The...
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“Friends…and Countrymen”- Comparing Julius Caesar’s Funeral Speeches with...
Act III in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is known for the funeral speeches given by the characters of Brutus and Marc Anthony. The speeches are so notable that this year, to teach argument and rhetorical...
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